The Mexican way of marinating jalapeño chiles, called jalapeños en escabeche, is so common that this is one canned or pre-prepared item found all over the country and was one of the first to cross the border.

Clifford Wright has this to say: "The Arabs ruled both Spain and Sicily for centuries, and as a result the word escabeche can be traced to the dialectal Arabic word iskibaj, which the great lexicographer Joan Corominas describes as deriving from the older sikbaj, meaning" a kind of meat with vinegar and other ingredients. ""

They have the best partridges I ever eat, and the best sausages; and salmon, pikes, and sea-breams, which they send up in pickle, called escabeche [Footnote: "Escabeche; a pickle made of white wine, bay leaves, sliced lemons, and spices, used for preserving fish and other food."

Based on delicate harmonies, the menu includes a sushi twist of sea-bass rolled in vine leaves; escabeche of red mullet with capers, olives and fresh greens; and crayfish and pumpkin risotto with red saffron from the northern Greek village of Kozani, a world-renown producer of the spice.